Alec Soth's photographs look into the heart of American life

Photographer Alec Soth has called his work "web surfing in the real world"—he finds his subjects by serendipity on his travels around the United States and abroad. For his first major project, he created a portrait of impoverished small towns along the Mississippi River; he has trained the lens of his oversized field camera on tourists at Niagara Falls, young Goth women in Louisiana, and, most recently, monks, survivalists, and other self-imposed social exiles. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis presents the first museum retrospective of Soth's 15-year career, with more than 100 photographs of Americans struggling to find a foothold between dignity and desperation.